Home Improvement Today?

Rock moved. A little left for under the stairs.

 

Is the rock going to be under your deck footprint ?

 

Yep. If I dont do it now it will be nearly impossible.

 

Cool

I thought the stone was going to be a landscaping feature when you got it , thats why I asked

 

Its kind of the start of the lanscaping that will go around the deck.

 

Gotta love the no/low maintenance landscaping!

 

Well have spent the last week starting the new flooring install. Nothing fancy..just some laminate. For having never done any sort of flooring before...gotta say its not that hard. Not the fastest at it either as Ive been buying the flooring in packs of 6 (~140 sq ft) at a time to take advantage of some coupons and save the most money I can. Its also been a bit refreshing as its finally forcing me to go through things as I have to move it. Ive donated a bunch of stuff and trashed a bunch more. No pictures yet as everything is quite a mess

On another note pressure washed the front and back decks. The front cleaned up nicely but needs a bit of touch up. The back though....the ~15 year old paint is shot. I was hoping it was just really dirty but nope the paint is flaking off. So add another project to the list for this summer. The back deck gets plenty of sun and weather (vs the covered front porch) so not to annoyed by it.

 

Having pix of the mess helps you appreciate the final product even more!

 

I have a few pics...im more just to lazy to upload them. Would take way more pics if i had a camera phone. But kind of annoying to have to upload off the camera then to here, ect

 

What are you going to use to attach your ledger ?

 

And the flashing should extend further down...just saying.

 

I need to stain my deck. I did it myself last year. Its pressure treated. I did it in the fall so didn't have time to let the wood dry out last year. Any suggestions on stain and the process. I'd like to do the best job I can. My plan was to clean it with some kind of deck cleaner, power wash, use wood brightener then let it dry and stain. I just have no clue what stain to use. Brand? Semi solid or semi transparent? Oil, or water based? Any real world experience would be greatly appreciated.
As you can see some of the framing is already stained as well as the ballasters which I reused from before. I don't care about the color matching the new stain. I actually like the 2 toned look.

 

Not a professional, but I would consider using spar urethane as it has UV protectants in it. As far as water vs oil based, you should use the same for your stain and top coat, so if you use oil based stain, use oil based top coat (spar u.).

Also the glossier the topcoat, the easier it will be to clean down the road, but I prefer the looks of low sheen.

 

GRK lag screws.

I'm not hanging joists off of the ledger board so it isn't a big structural component of the deck.

 

Love the GRK RSS

 

I would forego the cleaner and brightener, just pressure wash the deck. Since you are staining the deck the brightener is pointless. I would look at Sherwin Williams Woodscapes for the stain.

 

A small job to make the wife happy. Now she can charge her tablet via USB.



Now my OCD is bugging me and I'll go fix the screws. Lol.

 

Yes please fix the screws! I'm obsessed with that too!

 

Rainscreen plywood strips installed (except outside corners and around the windows)

This should make the system more understandable